


Preludes

by badgerterritory



Category: Marvel 616, X-23 (Comic)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-16
Updated: 2014-04-16
Packaged: 2018-01-19 14:34:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,564
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1473307
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/badgerterritory/pseuds/badgerterritory
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Laura Kinney had a twin sister when she escaped the Facility; a story about them afterwards.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Preludes

**Author's Note:**

> There will be more to this story after I finish another project. I'll be doing short scenes from their lives at various points. Bracketed text indicates telepathic conversation.

Nobody was more surprised than Sarah Kinney when a test revealed she had twins. It was hypothetically impossible for the clone to split in the womb, but split it had, and they had identical twins.

They grew up separately, and each was forbidden to know about the other. They both received the same training, although from different people, and both were prematurely forced to activate their X-genes.

One, X-23 Alpha, manifested claws and a healing factor. The other, X-23 Beta, showed remarkable telepathic and telekinetic abilities as well as a healing factor, although much weaker than her twin’s. Beta began to ask about her twin afterwards, and was eventually kept in a power-dampening area of the Facility. Sarah protested, saying that she’d be useless if she couldn’t train her powers. But she was ignored, as always. Beta was kept as a spare, in case something happened to Alpha, whose training and conditioning continued while Beta was simply held.

Then the bad things began happening. Alpha seemingly lost on a mission. The new management. The catastrophe with her niece. Finally fully realizing the horrors she’d done to her daughters.

And then Sarah died saving her daughters. She sent Laura (because Alpha was too cruel to call her, her little girl) to kill the rest of the Facility while she took Lana, more defenseless than her fierce, clawed sister, out. And when Laura caught sight of her… She had just enough breath to give them their names, and press the letter into Laura’s hands, before she died.

Both of them stayed, frozen, over their mother’s body. They stayed until the snow piled up around them, and then Laura said, “We must go.”

There was a tingle at the back of her mind. Lana said, “I can… feel again. I can feel you, sister.”

"We must go," Laura repeated, and she held out her hand. Lana accepted it and they ran.

They traveled aimlessly at first, since Laura had no mission, and Lana had no idea that they were supposed to have a mission. Laura trained her sister, helped her strengthen her telekinetic powers and soothed her when they were too weak to do something. Laura was more used to killing than comforting, but she found a way for Lana.

Eventually, Laura formed a mission in her mind. She had to protect her sister. Lana was not like her. Lana knew how to kill, but she didn’t know the way it felt to push claws through bone. Lana didn’t know what it was like to fight desperately for survival against a hail of bullets. If Laura had her way, she would never know.

They found their way to their aunt. Laura observed first. Lana wanted to go in, kept saying  _[Why can’t we go in and say hello to them?]_  directly into Laura’s brain. But Laura was cautious. She knew that the Facility was powerful. She wanted to make sure it was safe.

Eventually, she knocked on the door. Lana was waiting out of view; she would come if Laura deemed it safe. Their aunt was the one who opened the door. Laura said, “Hello. I am Sarah Kinney’s daughter.”

* * *

It was fine, for a day. Then came the crash. Laura nearly killed her aunt and cousin, stopped only by Lana forcing her still until they could wash the trigger scent off.

Then Kimura arrived, and she knocked out Lana, and Laura nearly died, except she didn’t. She survived, Lana survived, Megan survived, Debbie survived. They escaped. And the only thing that was certain was that they would never see Megan again.

After that, Laura quickly figured out they needed money. It wasn’t long until she fell into the lap of a pimp. He housed Lana without requiring her to work, so it worked. And it was a relief to take orders again. She hated being forced to make decisions for herself and Lana.

And it was a relief to have her own space again. After each client she could wind down. Cut herself again. Lana never had to know.

Until, of course, one of her clients killed himself. She stared at the blood and carved into her own skin until she didn’t feel anything anymore.

And then they arrived and took her away. She wanted to protest, to say she needed to get her sister, but blood loss was ringing in her ears and she couldn’t think well. They were gone before she could gather herself.

There were issues. Laura followed them because it was simpler. Confusing at times, but simpler.

And then Zebra Daddy was holding a gun to Lana’s head, threatening her. Everything went red, and when it was over…

It was over.

* * *

They found their way to the X-Men. That became home. Laura was placed in a room with Sooraya, who was kind. Lana was placed in a room with Phoebe, a fellow telepath. Laura worried about Lana, but she reached out occasionally throughout the day. Sometimes to talk, sometimes just to brush against Laura’s mind to let her know she was still there.

Lana definitely fit in better than Laura. Lana hadn’t been isolated like Laura had been. Lana actually spoke with her roommate. Sooraya did not speak with Laura because all Laura knew was death.

Laura went to her classes, studied, excelled. She had difficulty with her morality-based classes at first until she learned that as long as she parroted the things she told them, they didn’t care. Laura didn’t understand the way they abhorred killing. Killing was clean. A kill ensured the problem would not return. Out of curiosity, she went through the public records of the X-Men and pointed out to her sister everything that could have been solved if they had simply killed their enemies.

Lana countered with instances of things that couldn’t have happened if they killed. The Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver in the Avengers, for starters. Laura still didn’t understand, but she supposed she wouldn’t, being designed for slaughter.

When she thought that, she felt Lana sighing in her head.  _[Laura, you know you can be something other than what they tried to make you.]_

_[You don’t understand,]_  she thought back.  _[They left you alone.]_

She was eventually approached by Cyclops for X-Force. She allowed him to speak, then told him to go away. A week later Lana called for her. She found Cyclops speaking with Lana about joining X-Force. She drew her claws and said, “You will never speak to my sister again.”

When Cyclops was gone, she hugged Lana.

It was never mentioned again, but the offer festered at the back of Laura’s mind. She was tempted to put her skills to use again, to kill, but then Lana would walk in and start talking or thinking about girls and she’d fall backwards onto Laura’s bed. Sometimes Sooraya would be there, and Lana would talk to her while she carried a telepathic conversation with Laura.

Lana didn’t speak with a monotone. Lana didn’t close her eyes and see an endless progression of deaths. Sometimes Laura resented her for that. But mostly she just thought Lana required protection from it.

They lasted there for a while. But the strain of living with people who distrusted Laura took its toll. She began sleeping outside, unable to close her eyes around Sooraya, in the confined space of her room. She fell into and out of love with Julian. Kimura attacked, bringing all the horror of the Facility back. She remembered every abuse that Kimura brought down on her and Lana felt it all too, and they cried together in the dark under the stars.

When Laura told Lana her intention to leave, Lana said, “I’m coming.” She held up her hand when Laura wanted to protest. “I am going to go with you, sister. Someone has to keep you out of trouble and break up with your boyfriends when things get bad.”

Laura blushed and didn’t protest at all after that.

* * *

It was three days before Gambit found them. He smirked and convinced them to travel Europe with him, so Laura could find herself away from all the others. They accepted.

They traveled, just the three of them, for a while before they landed in Paris. It was there that they met Wolverine and Jubilee, and by the end of that visit…

Well, Lana found new reasons to smirk at her and most of them were because of the vampire. Lana made smooching noises at them whenever they were in the same room together, which was one of the more annoying habits their former classmates had taught her.

Laura and Jubilee parted ways reluctantly, each promising to call, with desperate kisses.

* * *

They met again in New York. Lana accompanied them everywhere, which meant they didn’t get as much private time as they wanted. When Laura asked why Lana was accompanying them everywhere, Lana just winked. Every single time. Just a wink and a smirk.

Lana held onto Laura, too. Her hand and her mind. Lana was usually in Laura’s mind most of the time, but she was never so talkative. There was an undercurrent of anxiety that Laura decided to question her about later.

But they went to a club, and Laura saw the prostitute. And then there was that adventure. And then there was an offer to go to Avengers Academy.

* * *

They settled. They found home.


End file.
